


Firebolt

by summersocietyy



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Birthday, Family Dinner, Fluff, This Is Pure Fluff They Get Together To Play DND On Reid's Birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:35:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24557773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summersocietyy/pseuds/summersocietyy
Summary: JJ looks around for a moment, like she’s trying to find an actual healing potion to give to Hotch. She settles for taking a single cheeto out of the bag in front of her and holding it out to him with a grin. Hotch takes the offered cheeto slowly as JJ wiggles in her seat and rolls a d10.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 57





	Firebolt

**Author's Note:**

> hello this is NOTHING BUT FLUFF. i had this idea the other night during my own game of dnd and became OBSESSED. i hoped that writing something other than perchance to dream would help with my writer's block and i think it has, so keep an eye out for the next chapter sometime in the next couple days!

“That’s a three, plus.. Um.” Hotch squints at the piece of paper on the table in front of him.

  
“Plus two.” Garcia says gently, leaning over and pointing to the correct stat.

  
“Plus two. So five.”

  
Reid remains quiet for a moment before clasping his hands behind his tri-fold and giving Hotch a smile.

  
“It’s just a door.” He says pleasantly. Hotch squints at him from across the table disbelievingly.

  
They’re gathered around the table in Rossi’s dining room, their dinner long since finished. They’re two - (in some cases four) glasses of wine in, and because it’s Reid’s birthday, Garcia had convinced everyone weeks ago to let him DM a game of dungeons and dragons for the team.

  
Also because it’s Reid’s birthday, the smell of still-baking birthday cake had hit him as soon as he and Garcia opened the door and he had known immediately that this wasn’t just another family dinner like Garcia had said. Rossi had made them all old-fashioned spaghetti and meatballs with his mother’s recipe, as per the birthday boy’s request, and Reid was pretty sure his ears were a brighter shade of red than the homemade marinara when they brought the cake out, all singing at the top of their lungs.

  
Garcia had also spent all week helping everyone make characters for tonight. In all honesty, part of her (quite a large part, really) is hoping that they all fall in love with the game and it becomes a regular thing. Something fun and silly to do to wind down after a case, because God knows they need it.

  
Prentiss had been the easiest for character creation. Garcia had handed her a character sheet and Prentiss had filled it out suspiciously quickly, shoving it back at the blonde with _dwarf_ scrawled in the race and _ranger_ in the class. She won’t tell Garcia how exactly she filled it out so fast or so well, but Garcia gets the feeling that somewhere in Prentiss’ apartment is a hidden jar full of dice. She’s wrong. There’s two.

  
JJ had been fairly easy as well. Garcia had sat down with her over coffee one afternoon, a players handbook laid out in front of them, and JJ, not knowing anything about the game, had quickly chosen to be a goblin and a rogue. Despite Garcia trying to persuade her differently, JJ had remained committed to her goblin, and Garcia had been quite proud when JJ had rolled well for her stats.

  
Morgan was a little more difficult - Garcia found herself explaining each of the races and classes to him multiple times until he finally settled on being a half-elf paladin. His reasoning being _paladin just sounds cool_ and _you’re already an elf so I can’t be that_.

  
She had helped Hotch create his character over lunch one afternoon, the two of them holed up in his office. He’d looked through everything with a serious, practical eye, eventually deciding he’d be a dragonborn fighter. When Garcia had commended him on his choice of race, he’d shrugged and told her the claws looked like they’d come in handy. But Garcia’s seen the photo of Hotch and Jack where Jack is clutching a thirty-year-old stuffed dragon like his life depends on it, and she knows that it used to be Hotch’s.

  
Rossi, in his own words, didn’t really understand or care, but if it was for the kid, sure why not. The five each glasses of wine he and Garcia had had while creating his character had resulted in a most-of-the-time drunk human wizard, and Garcia found that oddly appropriate, because that was basically Rossi anyways, wasn’t it?  
Garcia herself had made her character before helping anyone else, her excuse being that it would be easiest to show everyone her character sheet when she was helping them create theirs. Really, though, she just wanted to be a bard before anyone else could claim the role.

  
“I.. Open the door.” Hotch says slowly.

  
“No, let someone else investigate the door first! Someone with a better investigation stat!” Prentiss cries from her seat beside Reid. “Hotch, you’re gonna get yourself squished by a wall or something.”

  
“I open the door!” Morgan jumps in, grinning broadly. Reid raises an eyebrow and Hotch waves a relenting hand.

  
“Let Morgan open the door, then.” He says, still squinting at Reid as he sits back in his chair. Reid flips through his book for a moment, then looks up at Morgan as Prentiss flops her hands and sits back in her chair with a huff.

  
“Alright. Morgan, make a dexterity saving throw.” He says. “Hotch, you make one, too, since you were right there.” Hotch sputters a little, but doesn’t argue. He and Morgan shake the dice that were given to them at the start of the night, both leaning forward as the two d20s clatter against the table.

  
“Sixteen!” Morgan crows, patting the table. “Oh - plus one, seventeen!”

  
“Twelve.” Hotch grumbles. Reid grins at the two of them.

  
“Morgan, as you open the door, a bevy of arrows comes flying towards you from each side of the wall. You manage to drop to the ground just as you hear the click of the tiny doors in the wall opening. Hotch, you do the same but you’re not quite quick enough.” Reid says, rolling a die of his own behind his screen. “What’s your AC?”

  
“My what?” Hotch asks, frowning at his paper.

  
“Your armor class.” Prentiss says. Garcia points at it on his page and Hotch nods.

  
“Sixteen.” He says proudly. Reid hums.

  
“Okay.” He rolls another die and scrunches his nose. “Take five piercing damage.” Hotch grimaces and scribbles a number on his paper, frowning.

  
“What’re you at?” Morgan asks, leaning over. He whistles low, then laughs quietly. “Five, not great.

  
“Ooh! I have a healing potion!” JJ says eagerly, piping up for the first time in five minutes. She grins broadly at Hotch from her seat between Rossi and Morgan. “Spence, can I give him one of my healing potions?”

  
“Sure.” Reid says, nodding. JJ looks around for a moment, like she’s trying to find an actual healing potion to give to Hotch. She settles for taking a single cheeto out of the bag in front of her and holding it out to him with a grin. Hotch takes the offered cheeto slowly as JJ wiggles in her seat and rolls a d10.

  
“He gets ten points back!” She says brightly. Hotch smiles gratefully and tacks a one in front of the five on his paper.

  
“Okay, what’re you guys doing next?” Reid says, leaning forward on his elbows.

  
“Going through the door?” Morgan says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. He loudly decides that he’ll go first when Reid asks. They settle on a marching order and Reid rests his chin on his fist, peering around the table at his friends as they chatter, smiling just a little.

  
“What are our rations?” Hotch asks suddenly, tipping his head at his page. Reid hums, shrugging.

  
“Usually things like bread, jerky, some cheese and grapes or other fruit. Some races get wine in theirs.” He tells Hotch.

  
“Mine are cheetos.” JJ says happily, popping two into her mouth.

  
“Honey, cheetos don’t exist in Faerun.” Garcia says gently. JJ huffs at her.

  
“Fantasy cheetos!” She says indignantly, sticking her tongue out and tossing a cheeto at Garcia. Garcia catches it and munches on it. “I made them myself.”

  
“How did you make them?” Reid asks, raising a brow. JJ shrugs.

  
“I… Stole some of Rossi’s fancy cheese. And I baked it.” She says, grinning.

  
“You stole my cheese?!” Rossi yelps, smacking the table lightly. “I cast firebolt on JJ.” JJ gapes at him, then pouts.

  
“I’ll share my cheetos.” She says, using her best puppy-dog eyes.

  
“This is a personal injustice and I’ll never forgive you.” Rossi declares, huffing loudly. JJ pouts more and he squints at her, leaning forward in his chair. Prentiss hides her snickering behind her wine, blinking innocently at Rossi when he turns his burning gaze on her.

  
“Okay.” Reid says, waving a hand. Everyone looks at him and falls quiet at the suddenly serious look in his eyes. “You all file through the door and down a tiny hallway that opens into a big dining hall. There are two tables running most of the length of the room, piled high with forgotten food and dishes, as well as half-drunk goblets of spoiled wine. At the end of the room is a raised dais with a table and seven chairs at it. In each of the three chairs on the left and right are skeletons, and in the large chair in the center is a wight.”

  
“A what?” Rossi asks, frowning.

  
“A wight.” Reid repeats. “As you enter the room, it looks up from its spot at the table and smiles, then shoves the chair from the table and stands. I’d like everyone to roll for initiative.”  
“Which one is that?” Hotch whispers to Garcia, leaning over to her. She puts the d20 in his hand and he thanks her, rolling it. They go around the table, telling Reid their numbers, and launch into their first real fight of the game. It goes surprisingly well, despite the one time Reid asks Hotch to roll a death saving throw and he squints at the doctor across the table. “If you kill my guy, you’re fired.” He says, his tone teasing. Reid just grins at him.

  
Hotch manages to roll a fourteen and gains back most of his hit points, much to his delight. He’s also the one to deliver the final blow to the wight. When Reid asks how he wants to kill the monster, he hums.

  
“I wanna.. Chop its head off with my sword.” He says decisively. Reid nods and scribbles something in his notebook.

  
“Okay. Hotch, you see this wight about to smash a chair over JJ’s head, and you run up behind it, swinging your longsword.” He says. “Its head drops to the floor and rolls away, and you take the chair from its hands as its body falls.” Reid grins around the table. “You guys just killed your first monster, congrats!”

  
“I wanna kick the head!” JJ says suddenly. Reid laughs and nods. JJ beams at him and says, “I stand up and hug Hotch and then go kick the head as hard as I can.”

  
“The head goes flying across the room and lands right in the middle of a silver platter.” Reid says, grinning when JJ laughs loudly.

  
They play for a couple more hours, laughing and talking and drinking as they do. When they all part ways for the evening, Reid is smiling broader than any of them have seen him smile in months, and it warms all of their hearts. He accepts hugs from everyone and thanks Morgan for helping him load his gifts into the back of his car, then hugs his friend tightly.  
“That was actually pretty fun.” Morgan says, patting Reid on the shoulder as they step apart. Reid grins and nods.

  
“I’ve been telling you for years that D&D is fun!” He says, leaning against the car. He watches as Prentiss leads a giggling JJ out of the house and towards her car, holding the keys out of the blonde’s reach.

  
“Maybe we’ll play again sometime.” Morgan says, squeezing Reid’s shoulder. He hugs the younger man again and heads for his own car, opening the passenger door for Garcia.

  
They play a week later on the jet.

**Author's Note:**

> everyone's race and class:  
> rossi is a most-of-the-time-drunk human wizard  
> morgan is a half-elf paladin  
> prentiss is a dwarf ranger  
> garcia is an elven bard  
> jj is a goblin rogue  
> hotch is a dragonborn fighter!


End file.
